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| Got 150+ pounds of food from the garden last year even though we did literally nothing to tend it. |
(Republished from April 2020. Read Part One here.)
All the way back in November, I urged you to start thinking about a garden. It seems that these days more people than ever are considering growing their own food, and that is awesome! In addition to this series, I'm always happy to answer (or try to answer) any gardening questions you have, so feel free to drop a comment with your questions.
As I mentioned in part one, the first step in growing a garden is building good soil. If you sheet-mulched over the winter and put your compost scraps in, you should have some great soil ready for planting! If you didn't, though, you can still start a garden. Just remember this: the soil is the most important part of a garden. If the soil ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
If you're starting from scratch, you can try to amend the dirt you have with good soil, or simply build raised beds. I recommend bagged topsoil mixed with bagged compost or manure; or, if you have more money to spend and want a nice raised bed, one part peat moss or coconut coir, one part vermiculite, and one part compost.
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| My sister laughing and eating salad (tomato salad, that is) |
But once you've done that, now comes the really fun part… deciding what to grow!
The traditional thing to do is make a list of your favorite vegetables and just go from there. However, we're trying to make this easy on ourselves, so just that one list isn't going to do much good. For instance, I love carrots, but the springs here are so erratic that it's very hard to grow them consistently without cold frames. So I prioritize other vegetables instead.
For a beginner (or just someone who doesn't want to spend a ton of time babying their plants), here are the steps I'd recommend for choosing what to grow:
1. Figure out how much sun you have. After soil, sun is the next biggest factor of what you can grow. If your bed gets six or more hours of sunlight a day, you can grow most any vegetable. If it gets less than that, you'll want to check out a list of shade-tolerant plants like this one from Mother Earth News or this one.
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| 100 pounds of sweet potatoes in return for a bit of watering |
2. Find out what grows like a weed in your area. In my (full-sun, St.-Louis-area) yard, I've discovered that tomatoes, sweet potatoes, radishes, kale, cucumbers, and squash grow so abundantly with so little care that I have to constantly prune and harvest them just to keep their numbers in check. Ask some gardeners in your area what grows best: in the easiest vegetable garden ever, you want the majority to be plants that need no babying.
3. Think about things you like to eat that are perennial. Most garden vegetables are annuals, meaning you have to plant the seed or start each spring, and they grow up and die in a single season, in contrast to perennials, which are plants that come back by themselves year after year. For instance, while I'm fussing with planting tiny spinach seeds in my carefully-prepared garden beds, the stinging nettles we planted two years ago (which, when cooked, are even better than spinach) are springing up all over the yard without the slightest bit of help from me. The easiest vegetable garden ever will likely include some perennials.
Some ideas include…
Oregano, thyme, lemon balm, mint, etc.
Asparagus
Artichokes
Rhubarb
Jerusalem artichoke
Egyptian walking onion
Grapes
Berries: blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, goji berries, mulberries, etc.
Fruit trees: apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, cherries, etc.
Fig trees (you can grow them in St. Louis if you get the right variety)
Nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds, pecans, etc.
4. Think about what's expensive to buy at the store. Herbs, berries, and microgreens immediately come to mind: they are super expensive to buy, but quite easy to grow. For instance, I'm always astounded by how expensive elderberry syrup is, when it grows like a weed in our yard! When you're getting started on a garden, it makes more sense to focus on growing oregano and basil, which can be $2 an ounce at the grocery store, rather than potatoes, which can be bought for pennies per pound.
5. Now, cross-reference these lists with what you actually want to eat. What plants tolerate the amount of shade you have, grow like a weed, and/or are perennial and expensive to buy at the store? This may be a short list at this point, but that's okay. It's best to start small and see what happens. And if there's something you love to eat that didn't make the cut? Get it anyway and see what happens. Plants are resilient: they want to grow.
What's next? The fun part: buying them! To do this, go through three steps:
1. Decide whether you want to start from seed or seedlings. If you're new to this, I highly recommend seedlings (which means for most of you that you won't be putting anything in the ground until May), since they are easier to plant and less susceptible to weeds. Most, but not all, plants will grow well this way. Ask a gardener (or me!) about particular plants.
2. Figure out when each plant is supposed to be put in the ground. This will usually be judged by your last frost date (the time of year when the chance of frost significantly decreases), which you can find here. So if your last frost date is April 15th and the plant should be started 2 weeks before, you'll plant it now.
3. Find a local nursery that sells vegetables. If Lowe's or Walmart are your only choices, go for it— but the plants will be much healthier and more resilient if they were grown nearby (plus you'll be supporting a local business!). I suggest asking a gardening friend, Googling "plant nursery near me," and/or visiting a local farmers market (what I do), which often sell starts around this time of year.
4. Ask for help. Gardening is supposed to be done in community, and although it's a bit tricky at this particular moment with the stay-at-home order, you can still reach out to other people! Ask for advice, ask for seeds, ask the best time to plant something. We're all in this together.
Good luck, and feel free to drop questions in the comments!
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P.S. If you want an awesome beginner's book that covers the basics in more depth, see if your library has The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food: Step-by-Step Vegetable Gardening for Everyone by Joseph Tychonievich and Liz Anna Kozik. You won't be disappointed!
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